Tom Nolan Admits Referee Made Wrong Call Against Renato Moicano, Offers Rematch

Tom Nolan has done something rare in the aftermath of a controversial UFC win.

He admitted the referee made a mistake.

And then he offered his opponent an immediate rematch.

Nolan defeated Renato Moicano by TKO at 1:28 of the third round in the main event of UFC Vegas 123 on Halloween night, October 31, 2026.

But the fight was overshadowed by a single moment in the second round.

Moicano had taken Nolan’s back and locked in a body triangle.

That position is widely considered one of the most dominant in mixed martial arts.

From there, a fighter can work for a rear-naked choke, land punches to the head, or threaten with submissions.

Referee Dan Miragliotta stepped in and stood both fighters up.

Moicano was visibly shocked.

The crowd at the Meta Arena in Las Vegas had been booing during the grappling exchange.

Nolan believes those boos influenced the referee’s decision.

He said so himself during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.

“I don’t think he should have stood that up, but I do think the crowd had a big influence on him,” Nolan said.

He then put himself in Moicano’s position.

“I’d be pissed off if that was me and I had the back and it got stood up, for sure,” he added.

After the stand-up, the fight continued into the third round.

Nolan landed a series of punches and elbows on the ground that forced the referee to stop the bout.

It was Nolan’s sixth straight win inside the UFC.

The 26-year-old Australian lightweight improved his professional record to 12-1.

But the win came with an asterisk for many fans and analysts.

Commentators including Daniel Cormier, John McCarthy, Michael Bisping, and Joe Rogan all criticized Miragliotta’s call.

Cormier called it “one of the biggest” officiating errors he had ever seen.

McCarthy, a former referee himself, said the stand-up was indefensible.

Bisping used stronger language, calling the decision “fucked up.”

Dana White, the UFC CEO, took a different position.

He defended Miragliotta during a media scrum.

White argued that the rules prioritize damage over position.

“I don’t think it’s about having the dominant position,” White said.

“It’s: Are you doing damage, and are you trying to win the fight?”

White noted that some grapplers are so skilled they can hold back control for an entire round without advancing.

“The rules are, if you’re not doing damage, advancing your position and trying to finish the fight, you get stood up,” he said.

Moicano himself acknowledged that he was not producing significant damage from the back.

“I had a terrible performance,” Moicano wrote after the fight.

“I was well-trained, I managed to get back control, but I couldn’t do any damage. He was defending well.”

Moicano also said he did not recall receiving a warning from Miragliotta before the stand-up.

He claimed he had never seen a fighter stood up while controlling an opponent’s back.

Despite the controversy, Moicano did not blame the referee for his loss.

He congratulated Nolan and admitted the Australian’s defense was strong.

Nolan agreed that Moicano was not having much success from the back.

“He wasn’t having a great deal of success on the back,” Nolan said.

“I was defending well. The game plan was to be patient there and look for the knockout in the later rounds.”

Nolan believes the outcome would have been the same even without the stand-up.

But he still acknowledged the call was wrong.

And he went a step further.

Nolan offered Moicano a rematch.

“If he wanted it, in a heartbeat, I would give him that opportunity,” Nolan said.

He predicted the rematch would end even faster.

“I honestly think it would probably go very similar, but a lot earlier,” he said.

“Now that I’ve felt him, I think it’d be over pretty quickly. I don’t wanna disrespect him or be out here calling him out.”